10 years on and The Sims is still going strong

Is it really 10 years since The Sims launched? The PC home/life/relationship simulator went on to spawn two sequels and numerous expansion packs. In total the franchise has now sold over 100 million units worldwide since its launch in 2000. Heck, even the mighty Depeche Mode have recorded a song in Simlish. PC gamers may have scoffed at the time and carried on playing Diablo 2 but The Sims reached out to a vast new gaming audience, much like the Wii did six years later. That's the theory anyway. In reality the original Sims drew a large amount of initial interest from more traditional PC gamers, primarily due to designer Will Wright's track record. Their excitement rapidly faded – helped by a wave of increasingly random expansion packs – but a far larger number of new fans were hooked.

The cliché says The Sims appealed to female gamers, who enjoyed the relationships and house building stuff. While over-exaggerated there clearly is something to this stereotype, with my wife and other female relatives showing far more interest in The Sims than any other PC game before or since. Interestingly their interest faded with Sims 2 and, especially Sims 3, as both added a layer of control complexity and depth that seemed off-putting. And that throws up an important point. People often say The Sims is a brand for "casual" gamers but Sims 3, for example, demands far more gaming skill than, say, Bejeweled. This is reflected by EA's recent announcement that Sims 3 – released last year on PC – will be coming out on the consoles this Christmas.

So why did The Sims become so successful? The real-world setting was key - domesticity clearly appealed to wider audience than Diablo. But there is more to it. When the original game launched there was nothing really like it. Older gamers may have nostalgic memories of Little Computer People on the C64 – remember him tapping on the TV screen as you got increasingly bored of the "action"? – but The Sims was on another level. Your creations felt real for start. These were true little computer people and they needed your help. Washing, eating, bathing, going to the toilet – the gaming rule book was rewritten. Even if it was just trying to starve your Sim there was a real emotional engagement. And then there was the shopping. Furniture, kitchen goods, swimming pools – everything was available as long as you went to work and lived the capitalist dream. Will Wright says his inspiration for The Sims came from a fire that destroyed his home in 1991.

After that you have nothing and have to build your life from scratch, so what do you buy first? You get a toothbrush and underwear, then a place to stay, later a new car.

The domestic setting and retail therapy helped The Sims appeal to a wide audience but neither would have been enough if the original game had not been so cleverly designed. The numerous and often unnecessary expansions shouldn't obscure that fact.

Anyway, ten years on what are your favourite memories of The Sims. Never played it? Dismissed it after 20 mins? Or a huge fan and now playing Sims 3 every day?